Trumpeting a Native

Northfield native David Kjar looks forward to playing a concert his family can attend. “They don’t really have the opportunity to hear me play since most of my concerts are in other countries or on the East Coast,” says Kjar. But this month, the world-class trumpeter plays with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to playing early music on period-specific instruments.

Kjar’s Minnesota connection did not get him the job, however—that happened because of Kjar’s growing reputation from performances and recordings with some of Europe’s most prestigious early music artists and ensembles. “He’s a hot commodity in Europe and around the world,” says Paul Jacobson, Lyra’s executive director. So when Lyra got the chance, he was hired.

Kjar’s specialty is the natural (baroque) trumpet, and with Lyra he plays works by early seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers Gabrieli, Torelli, and Corelli. “These works really do sound different when they are performed on the old instruments,” Kjar says. “The natural trumpet and the old violins with gut strings create a very interesting and fascinating sound—a ‘blend’ that is harder to achieve on the modern instruments, which are designed more for individual projection.”

While ancient instruments were created to achieve certain musical effects, those musical effects were informed by the physical architecture and traditions of the performance spaces. Gabrieli explored antiphonal forms by tossing musical nuggets back and forth between the soaring balconies of St. Mark’s Cathedral.

Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, which Lyra’s strings play, depicts typical Italian Christmas Eve traditions, such as pipers playing in front of crèches.

For once, Kjar can share his music and these traditions with his family in Minnesota. Dec. 21. First Presbyterian Church, 512 SW 3rd St., Rochester; Dec. 22. Olivet Congregational Church, 1850 Iglehart Ave., St. Paul, 651-209-6799